Axis #02 - Enchanter by Sara Douglass

Author:Sara Douglass [Douglass, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-02-13T23:00:00+00:00

The Hall erupted. The Icarii, always excitable, whooped and screamed with joy. They were taking the next step on the long road home! South! South towards those high places so long denied them and towards the lost Icarii sacred sites! StarDrifter's face was tight with excitement. Lead us home, Axis, he prayed silently, lead us home.

The dark man started to shoulder his way through the crowd towards the dais. In the general hubbub, few noticed the strange man who passed through their midst.

The Acharites among them, particularly the newer arrivals, looked a litde discomfited. They were unsure of the Icarii, unsure of the new order. Most had worked well with the Icarii at Sigholt, fought side by side with them. But what would happen when the war was won? Would they lose their homes to the Icarii? Would the greater number of the Icarii, still in Talon Spike, seek to revenge themselves on the Acharites for the Wars of the Axe and their thousand-year exile?

"It will not be the old Tencendor but a new one," Axis shouted above the Icarii jubilation. "A new Tencendor! One where all races will live side by side."

Azhure caught a slight movement at the front of the crowd, and she gasped in shock. Axis followed her startled eyes.

The dark man stepped to the edge of the dais and stared intently, almost feverishly, at Axis and Azhure.

"Will you take me south? South to Faraday?" "Raum!" Azhure gasped. "Wliat has happened to you?"

A week later, the beginning of Thaw-month, Axis' army moved out of Sigholt and down through the HoldHard Pass. They stayed in the Pass only a league before swinging south through the Urqhart Hills towards Gundealga Ford. It was a calculated risk, but Axis didn't want to be delayed at the Smyrton ferry crossing as the army units were slowly ferried across. At least they could cross Gundealga Ford in a day, then swing east again to relative safety. And, unlike Borneheld, Axis had the advantage of the Icarii Strike Force who could both warn and protect should Axis' force be threatened by another. Axis could hardly believe how large his command had grown. He had led some three thousand men out of Gorken-fort before going into the Icescarp Alps alone. Now, fifteen months after Gorkenfort, his force numbered almost seventeen thousand.

Trundling along behind the mounted and winged force was the supply train, perhaps a thousand packhorses, several dozen sturdy wagons, and sundry cooks, physicians, servants and, no doubt, Axis thought, a dozen or so whores as well. A large number of the Ravensbund women also rode with the supply column, although the majority of the women and children had remained behind in Sigholt and Lakesview. Riding the wagons much of the day were also those Icarii, mainly Enchanters, who had chosen to go south with Axis, StarDrifter and MorningStar among them. Axis was still concerned about the Gryphon. If the Strike Force was not about, either flying ahead to scout the terrain before them,

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